Oppenheimer: Death, the Destroyer of Worlds#

Quote#

We waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multiarmed form and says, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

Context#

What is likely Oppenheimer’s most famous quote. It was uttered in the course of an interview which appeared in The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965); a documentary produced by Fred Freed, NBC White Paper[1] [2].

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Footnotes#